Figure 1.

This is the base of the corolla
of Jaltomata herrerae
(the part we are viewing is
normally against the calyx).
In other words, we are looking
at the bottom of the corolla
with the calyx removed.

Flowers of this species produce
copious bright-red nectar, a
reward to pollinators, in five
troughs; the bottoms of the
troughs are showing.

The darker purple we
see is corolla pigmentation,
pigment in the cells of the corolla troughs, presumably anthocyanin,
not red nectar.

Photo by Segundo Leiva G. of
Mione et al. 801 or 802

Figure 2.

Jaltomata herrerae

Red nectar (not showing)
normally pools in
troughs, troughs that in
this photo are upside down.

When the red nectar is
removed by floral visitors
the purple pigmentation shows
(as in this photo), and this purple
pigmentation may be mimicry
of nectar (figure 4) by
flowers lacking nectar. Alternatively, the purple pigment that shows only when nectar is absent may be an honest signal.

In this photo we see the base of
the corolla (the part we are viewing is
normally against the calyx).
In other words, we are looking
at the bottom of the corolla
with the calyx removed.

Photo by Segundo Leiva G. of
Mione et al. 801 or 802

Figure 3.

Jaltomata neei

Red nectar (showing)
pools in troughs,
troughs that in this
photo are mostly
empty of nectar.


When the red nectar is
removed by floral visitors
the purple pigmentation
shows (at left), and
this purple pigmentation
may be mimicry
of flowers that have
nectar (this photo
and figure 4) by
flowers lacking nectar.

Mione et al. 740,

Photo by Segundo Leiva G.

Figure 4. Jaltomata herrerae. The red "juice" in the flower is nectar. When the red nectar is removed by floral visitors the purple pigmentation in the corolla nectar troughs (figures 1 and 2) shows, and thus flowers lacking nectar may be mimicing those that have nectar, and flowers missing some nectar may be mimicing flowers having copious nectar.

Fieldwork has not been done to determine whether pollinators are deceived, leading to floral visits even when the flower has minimal or no reward.

Here are two possibilities: 1) flowers that have had their nectar removed or partially removed by a visitor resemble flowers that have nectar, and 2) flowers that are blanks (flowers that don't produce nectar) resemble flowers that produce nectar. If an opportunity for more fieldwork arises I will find out if this species produces blanks.

Another non-mutually exclusive possibility: The purple troughs of Jaltomata herrerae increase the conspicuousness of the flowers from the back, through the calyx, pollinators being able to visually fix on a flower either from the front or back. A photo of the purple/red coloration showing through the back of the flower, through the calyx, can be seen as figure 9 at the page of J. herrerae.

Above: photo by Segundo Leiva G. of Mione et al. 801 or 802

Figure 6. Even though Jaltomata umbellata produces copious red nectar, there is reddish-purple pigmentation in the tissue of the proximal corolla tube (the reddish-purple in this photo is not nectar), as one can see in the flower on the left (it is at its earliest stage of being open). This reddish-purple pigmentation may be mimicry of nectar by flowers lacking nectar. Grown for study and photographed by Jamie Kostyun 2013, Mione 432.

Figure 7. This is the base of the corolla of Jaltomata sanchez-vegae (the part we are viewing is normally against the calyx). In other words, we are looking at the bottom of the corolla with the calyx removed.

This species has translucent nectar in nature. The purple pigmentation of the corolla of this species could be considered general exploitation of animals innate attraction to this color (not mimicry).

Photo by Thomas Mione, Mione et al. 832.